More than 1,000 death-row inmates held in a unit of Iran’s Ghezel Hesar Prison have entered a third week of a mass hunger strike to protest regime executions, with some prisoners sewing their lips shut in protest, according to reports.
The escalating demonstration at the U.S.-sanctioned Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj near Tehran, also highlights growing international concern over the Islamic Republic's reliance on capital punishment, particularly for drug-related offenses.
According to the international bodies to take action to halt the executions.
This marks the second major demonstration at the facility in recent months.
A similar protest occurred at Ghezel Hesar Prison in October 2025, when more than 1,500 inmates staged a six-day hunger strike, according to temporarily halt executions and review cases.
However, human rights activists report those promises were never fulfilled, according to human rights violations and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.
"These heinous acts included multiple severe beatings of political prisoners engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the increased wave of executions being carried out at the facility," then-Secretary of State executed at least 2,159 people in 2025.
Iran’s total helped drive the number of executions recorded by Amnesty International to at least 2,707 across 17 countries — the highest figure the organization has recorded since 1981. The total excludes China, where execution data is classified as a state secret and Amnesty believes thousands of executions were carried out.